Why Your Business Needs Links (The SEO Secret You Need To Know in 2019)

Alexander Porter

| Jul 04 2019

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Links are important to your SEO efforts as there is a direct correlation between the quality/quantity of links pointing to your site and how much search traffic your website gets.

Google has admitted that links are one of the top three most important ranking factors. So if you want your site to appear at the top of Google, you need links.

What effect would it have on your small business to have more links = which means more site traffic = which means more customers?

In the world of real estate success comes down to location, location, location.

If you want better rankings on Google, more traffic, and more leads – it’s all about link, links, links.

I get that links are important, but why?

Back when Google first started figuring out how to rank websites, one of the defining metrics was the number of links a site had.

If you had links from other sites it must have been because your content was strong. Which meant you deserved your spot at the top of Google.

So in theory, the more links you could get, the better your rankings.

You can see links as popularity votes for your website. The more votes you get, the more popular you are on Google.

So why can’t I get thousands of links and jump to the #1 spot on Google?

In the simplest words – not all links are created equal.

Remember how Google used to see the number of links as corresponding to a website’s quality?

Well over time this system was abused as websites tried to build tons of links from low-quality and spammy websites.

In 2019, Google has changed their ranking algorithm so it’s not about the quantity of your links, but the quality.

A vote (link) from a quality, well-known website is more valuable than a vote (link) from a low-quality and unreliable website.

So it’s no good to go out and try and collect hundreds of links from spammy sites.

If you want to improve your rankings on Google, get more site traffic, and generate more leads, you need links from quality, reputable and reliable sites.

OK, I understand that quality links are the most important. How do I know which sites are quality?

There are a range of factors that determine the value of a link for your website.

Remember, it’s about quality not quantity in 2019.

As a small business owner, here are 3 of the most important attributes to keep an eye out for:

#1 – Relevance

If you’re a home loan provider than a link from a website focused on home loans is more valuable than a website dedicated to plumbing.

Links from relevant websites help Google to understand what your page is about, which will help you rank for the subject you specialise in.

So if you want to rank in Sydney for ‘home loans’ then links from other Sydney websites that focus on finance will go a long way towards your goal.

#2 – Authority and Trust

Links from trusted websites are always worth more than links from untrustworthy websites.

For example, government, news and educational websites are considered to be trustworthy as they require high difficulty to get. After all, news websites want to appear as trustworthy and reliable, so they don’t provide links to anyone.

You will often hear about the value of links ending with .edu or .gov. These represent trusted sites – like universities or government agencies – which are worth more to your site.

BONUS TIP – If you see link building services advertising hundreds, or even thousands, of links a week for rock-bottom prices, you know it’s too good to be true. These links will be low-quality and provide no SEO value to your site. In many cases Google can punish you for trying to manipulate your rankings with spammy links. So always enquire about the quality of links you’ll be getting!

#3 – Diversity

Google likes to see your website get a variety of links. This is an indicator of trust as websites with unnatural link profiles – built extremely quickly or containing too many spammy links – can be red-flagged and manually penalised.

So, what type of links should you target to ensure diversity?

Website directories

People naturally sharing your content

Bloggers talking about your business

Other business owners quoting you as an expert

Reviews online

As part of an SEO campaign, building a natural link profile means better rankings on Google, more site traffic, and more leads as a result.

Great! I’ve got heaps of quality links now. Can I stop trying to get more?

No! Link building is an ongoing process.

Google can see when links to your site dry up, and they’ll see this as an indicator that your website is no longer relevant, up-to-date or reliable.

In this case your competition, who have still been building their link profile, could jump you and take your rankings instead.

This means you can’t afford to stop building links to your website once you’ve started.

Then again, why would you want to?

With a constantly growing portfolio of natural, quality links you’ll see your Google rankings improve = which means more site traffic = which means more customers.